Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What big-picture issues are affecting the Blue Jays' performance?
Welcome to At The Letters for June 16th, 2026. Ben Nicholson Smith here with you in Toronto. Arden's Welling is in Boston, I believe.
Arden, tell us where you are and how you're doing. That's accurate. I'm in Boston. I was in Washington yesterday. I'll be in Chicago later this week. The rare back to back Fenway Wrigley road trip. A couple hundred years of history in the ballparks there. So that's going to be cool. Right. That is really cool. Have you been to Wrigley many times? I wouldn't say many times.
Depends on your definition of many. Maybe like six or seven, something like that. Not a crazy amount. Not like, you know, I've been to Camden a lot. Right.
Or Fenway, obviously, you've been to it lots and lots of times.
Chapter 2: How has the Blue Jays' rotation performed recently?
Wrigley Field, for me, is just an elite ballpark. And I've been there a handful of times myself and enjoyed it every time. But I've never covered the Jays there. And it's just so cool. It's so intimate. It's such a... different place to watch a baseball game, especially in the summer.
I mean, Wrigley Field really anytime of year is cool, but you get there in the summer, the fans are just having a great time. Wrigleyville is such a cool place to be. So it really is a special stadium.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you got three day games as well at Wrigley, which is going to be kind of cool. The last game at Fenway, also a day game. So we're going to have four straight day games. So I'm going to have basically as close to a nine to five as I'm ever going to have in my life with four straight day games, although there's kind of a flight in the middle there.
And, you know, come to think of it, I did just watch a sporting event at the White House, which was built in what the
1700s or 1800s or something like that so really these are just like modern uh atmospheres that i'm going to right now that's right i mean i wouldn't say that covering ufc at the white house followed by jays in boston and chicago is really a nine to five vibe but you can hold on to that if you want to i guess closest you're going to get for uh for a while but certainly um
Yeah, I'm sure we could do a whole podcast on the UFC event without getting too far off course here, because I do want to get to the Jays.
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Chapter 3: What rule change idea does Ben propose for baseball?
I'm going to drop a little rule change later in the podcast that I think should happen. But I mean, I am kind of curious, how was the White House event?
It was cool. I'm not like at the White House for the actual night of the fights. Like the seating there was extremely limited. Like I think there might have been maybe like 10 media on the White House lawn itself. Most of us were in the media center. But I was at the White House for like a walkthrough of the facility on Friday. I think it was Thursday morning.
And just like that whole process was super cool of going through, even just like going through all the security, which obviously you go to the airport and you do security and it's kind of a pain in the ass.
But going through White House security, it was just kind of like something neat about just the levels of it and how thorough it is and just how many really interesting just law enforcement people that you're dealing with. And then, yeah, I was like at the White House. I was touching security. The White House, which is just as close as I've ever been to the White House.
So to me, that was pretty cool. Wow.
Yeah, definitely different than even our daily baseball coverage is is very cool and takes us to some to some. incredibly historic places and places that have a lot of, yeah, just a lot of intrigue to them, how they work and how they function. But I can imagine the White House would be a little different and maybe even amped up beyond what we would see just given everything going into that event.
So that's great that that was a fun experience.
Yeah, I don't know what it's like there typically. I would say it was my first time in the White House. But yeah, it was definitely the absolute scenes, honestly, the entire week. Like it was just so unusual and different and unique and bizarre and cool. And I mean, even just like the way that they set up.
everything that Arena has on the lawn at the White House, a bit of a feat of engineering, really. And it's cool just getting to do a story on just how they actually built that structure and how they put it all together and all the various considerations and work and planning that went into this and the just like thousands and thousands and thousands of hours that were spent on it.
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Chapter 4: How did the Blue Jays fare against the Yankees recently?
okay, Scherzer struggles again, and the home run issues that have really plagued him in the course of this 2026 season surface again.
Chapter 5: What offensive struggles are the Blue Jays currently facing?
He allows two more home runs, let's say, to the Red Sox, and or Corbin struggles, and it doesn't look good for him. Well, at that point, you might be looking at taking one or both of those pitchers. Well, not both, but taking one of those pitchers And shifting them to a bullpen role, shifting them... You could frame it as temporarily, right?
You don't have to frame it as this is forever because you don't know. You might need them again. But you can say, for now, for this series, for this stretch, for the indeterminate time being, this individual is going to go to the bullpen, Shane Bieber's going to come back, and we know we're going to need this guy as the season progresses. And you kind of go from there.
So I actually kind of think that... there is more pressure than there's ever been on Corbin and on Scherzer, just given the return of Bieber and how close he is.
Sure. And another way you could do it is just if those two struggle in their next outings, Scherzer and Corbin, you could still do the six-man configuration, but just pitch those guys behind an opener. But again, if you're going to... Well, not again, because I haven't said it yet. If you're going to six... The downside is it taxes your bullpen further because you're one arm down in the bullpen.
I assume that would likely be Simeon Woods Richardson, which would mean that Spencer Miles would be your lone long guy out there. So if you use him for 40 to 45 pitches behind, let's just say Max Scherzer,
on whatever day and then the following day Trey Savage goes out and walks six batters through three innings you're in trouble because your long guy's unavailable because he threw 45 pitches the day prior and maybe you've had to make a move somewhere else in your bullpen just to get some length in there however we've talked about the workload this bullpen has withstood like we've talked about just the unsustainable pace that guys like Hoffman and Varland and Fisher and Flewharty
And I always kind of exclude Tyler Rogers from that conversation because he's just different and he can just pitch more than your typical bear. But I think that the Blue Jays right now, if anything, need to be lessening the load on their relievers.
And some of these configurations and some of these situations that they're looking at where you've got starters who aren't going particularly deep and you've got guys coming off the IL who you want to be cautious with, those aren't really going to be conducive. for lightening the load on your bullpen.
What the Blue Jays need the most right now is just length and length from non-Gausman cease starters. But it's kind of hard to see where that's going to come from with it being Corbin Scherzer, Yusavage, Bieber, and all four of those pitchers maybe more likely than not, to be two trips through max for one reason or another.
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Chapter 6: What are the potential impacts of Vlad Guerrero Jr.'s performance?
Well, as you said last week, it's an exhibition game. I mean, the goal isn't to reach some unmeasurable best game possible. It's to create entertainment. It's to create discussion about the game. And so by that measure, they're succeeding because we're talking about it. There's a reason they released these updates too, right? It's like it creates conversation. And it's fun.
Ultimately, I do think it's fun. So we'll leave that there. As long as you're ready for my proposed rule change.
Buddy, you've been teasing it all episode. I can't wait.
I don't actually know if it's going to live up to all this preamble. But, okay, here's my idea. So, we know when a pitch is thrown in Major League Baseball, there are three people who can challenge it. The batter, the pitcher, and the catcher. Okay? My rule change, my proposed rule change... is that anyone in uniform can challenge any pitch.
And the reason for this is you would still only get two challenges per game. But if the left fielder feels really passionately, if the hitting coach feels really passionately, then they're allowed to challenge. And... This wouldn't happen very often. It would be very rare for, say, the center fielder to challenge. Or even you could have a base runner on second base who challenges if you want.
You could have the manager. Anyone in uniform can challenge. Maybe not the trainer. It would have to be a coach, a designated coach. But anyone can challenge. So in those rare, rare, rare instances that you have, like, a base runner at third or maybe the third base coach challenges, it would be just so out there and it would be so surprising that I think the entertainment value would be massive.
It's almost actually gotten to that point with pitchers where pitchers are so bad at challenging that even when a pitcher challenges, it's kind of entertaining. So I would actually expand it. I would say anyone is allowed and just go for it. It's a free-for-all. What are you solving for? Just making baseball more entertaining, right? Like there's not an issue here, right? No, no, no.
The challenge system has obviously been great. It's to turn a 95 out of 100 into a 96 out of 100. Like it wouldn't fundamentally change very much at all. But I just love the idea that these people would then be permitted to challenge because I don't see any reason that we should prevent non-pitcher catcher batters from challenging.
I mean, no team is going to allow anyone other than the catcher and hitter to do it.
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Chapter 7: How might the Blue Jays adjust their pitching rotation?
So, yeah, interested to watch their progress as the year goes on.
All right, that is it for us this week on At The Letters. We'll be back soon to catch you up on all the latest when it comes to the Toronto Blue Jays, perhaps some more theories, challenges, mini bases, and whatever else comes across our radar in the next few days. But for now, this is it. Thank you to Christian Ryan for producing this episode. Thanks to Arden.
Look for his coverage from Boston and then from Chicago. And thanks to you for listening to At The Letters.